Chisolu Obumneke-Okeke says his professional and educational escapades in Nigeria, England and the United States of America have taught him one lesson: “If the world does not act, we are going to lose the environment to climate change.”
“Now is the time to open up to clean and renewable energy. What we need are legal frameworks to create awareness and help in moving away from fossil energy to clean and renewable energy,” Obumneke-Okeke said.
The Nigerian lawyer’s journey has been characterised by hard work, resilience and discipline. After graduating from the Nigerian Law School in 2016, he started working as a criminal lawyer, but the desire to try something different led him to renewable energy, projects and infrastructure law.
The breakthrough came when he got a scholarship for a Masters in Law degree (LLM) at Teesside University in Middlesbrough, England.
“There I had the opportunity to work with different people and joined National Grid where I worked in the energy system and infrastructure department and did a bit of investor projects and liaising with market offices,” he said.
While living in England, he joined Addleshaw Goddard as an infrastructure, projects and energy associate, and was involved in advising on public–private partnerships, contractual agreements, customer development and franchise agreements.
In January 2023, Obumneke-Okeke began working for Amudi Law LLC and moved to New York, USA, before being seconded back to Nigeria to focus on regulatory energy business and liaising with the government in creating energy value as part of a World Bank funded project.
His current role is to draft power purchase agreements and facility contracts, infrastructure agreements, and value chain agreements.
“We’re working on the development of pilot programmes for generating electricity for rural communities in Nigeria. It’s just energy, energy and more energy to develop the biggest framework for Nigeria covering 25 states,” he explained.
Having now worked in the energy sector on three continents, Obumneke-Okeke thinks Africa still lags behind but is on the right track to achieving clean energy with a gradual move away from fossil energy.
“The UK and USA are far ahead, but I think Africa is better suited to benefit more from the energy franchise. We are now open to the idea of clean energy and getting some carbon credits,” he commented.
To achieve the dream of clean energy in Africa, Obumneke-Okeke advocates for the creation of energy policies and frameworks to guide the process, since the continent has plenty of land to develop solar infrastructure and solar power stations.
He advises young lawyers still trying to find their footing not to keep their heads in one area, but to be aggressive and keep up with the expanding nature of law.
Obumneke-Okeke’s journey hasn’t been without its challenges, but his overriding principle has been to try much harder to surpass the challenges.
“We have a local word from my village – kwechiri –’ which means resilience, good will and grit. That is something I believe in, because every storm comes with a breeze at the end,” he noted.
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